We've used close on a dozen at our club station on the south coast of EI - where it gets VERY windy. You can bury them in a self-dug hole (lots of rocks etc. required) but an auger dug hole would be much much better.

They are a bugger to install without the proper equipemnt - they are ceratinly heavy...

Install lightning protection )

G'luck
Cormac, EI4HQ

Pragmatic cost vs. performance: RG213
GL
Cormac, EI4HQ

I am currently building a new house.

It has a chimney (concrete block construction) that will extend 3m above the eaves of the house.

The top of the chimney is 11m agl and I propose to mount an HF beam (A3S/TH3 or perhaps a TH5) on it.

Can anyone provide suggestions as to how I can structurally strengthen the chimney beyond building it "block on flat" rather than "block on edge".

FYI:
The rotator (HamIV) will be positioned below eaves level (ie about 3m below the antenna). The antenna will be about 0.5m above the chimney top.

Also my builder & engineer are both satisfied that the wind loading of a tribander is not a significant consideration if the chimney is built "block on flat".

Thanks
Cormac, EI4HQ
Cork, Ireland.

Hi All,

Worked the UBA CW contest this weekend just gone and nearly deafened myself in the process - the CW sidetone volume on my rig is WAY too loud with headphones on. I've lost the manual so don't know how to turn it down - HELP!

73
Cormac, EI4HQ

I believe they widen the transmit side of the rig i.e. on European models 80m is expanded from 3.5-3.8 to 3 to 4MHz... The only other thing I can remember is that everytime you power off the rig these settings all revert to the factory status...

I have seen the full list of functionality somewhere - I'll try and dig it up for you..

73
Cormac EI4HQ, (TS450 owner)

Don't know the rig myself however the fault you describe is virtually identical to one we recently had with a TS-850 club rig (it stopped txing on 10m and then subsequently on 15m)...

The fault was with the low pass filter unit - I can't give you any more specific than that but it is easy to fix by all accounts...

Hope this reduces the worry a bit anyhow. Sorry I can't be of more use.

Cormac, EI4HQ

I have (granted an ageing) Kenwood R2000. Its a superb 5th (or is that 9th, 10th...11th) rig that I can't seem to part with. There is two very small mods that I would love to make to it however;

1. The scan does not stop when the squelch is opened. This is very annoying and I can't understand what the designers were thinking when they did it - particularly with the VHF module (which is really the only place where scan is relevant) this lacking effectively makes the scan function useless. I would like to modify the scan to be carrier operated.

2. The scan rate is too slow - is there any way of speeding it up I wonder?

I have full schematics & good electronics knowledge but don't know enough about scanning circuitry to figure this one out for myself - if there are any gurus out there who are looking for a challenge to pass away the long dark evenings then give me a shout...

Thanks
Cormac, EI4HQ

Don't know too much about the IC2001H although the ICOM spec. sheet specifies 12amps for it...

However I have run a TS450SAT at full duty cycle (100watts) CW for years in my shack using a car battery charged from the mains. Its never given me any trouble whatsoever and there is the advantage of never having to worry about high voltage spikes.

I used operate /MM (merchant navy) and this is where the idea came from - when I came ashore I just couldn't see any point in spending money on a mains PSU when what I had worked perfectly...

I work alot of contests & in those situations I just add 1 or 2 further (charged) batteries in parallel to get me through the weekends operating. For normal Dx activity one is plenty tho... 3 x batteries, 1 x charger = much less than a good 30A psu and I get continuous operation on those winter nights when we lose power )
Cormac, EI4HQ

Have located a manual (mail-order ex US)
ELMER CLOSED...

With Thanks
Cormac EI4HQ

Unfortunately - no R2000 manual available there - only the new RC2000 )

Any other help would be appreciated.

73
Cormac, EI4HQ

Thanks Carl - on the ball!
73
Cormac, EI4HQ

Ref: comments from WB2WIK;

I would wholeheartedly concur - lots of metal in the sky and a big RF switch is a good pragmatic approach )

Getting back to the original topic;

The one thing I would suggest however is that there's no substitute for burning up the atmosphere with a bit of RF power on 10 metres. I was reminded of this fact again yesterday while listening to 10m ssb. I came across LU1HF and K3PD(?) (setting up for CQWW next w/e). Both were powering through on what otherwise appeared to be a band in very poor condition.

Cormac, EI4HQ

I have a 2nd hand R2000 which unfortunately came without a manual. I wish to set it up for use with the excellent Beaconsee software.
(NCDXF &IARU beacon monitoring application: see http://sapp.telepac.pt/coaa/beaconsee.htm)

Could anyone let me know what lead(s) etc. are required to connect the R2000 to a PC - or alternatively can I make up something that'll do the job. All I need to do is be able to change frequency on the rig. Beaconsee looks after the s/w side...
Thanks
Cormac, EI4HQ
Manager EI0TEN, Irelands 10 metre propagation beacon.

Hullo Fred,
You are of course correct - from an RF/propgation theory standpoint polarisation is knocked around randomly in the ionisphere and hence is a gamble which is better. However speaking from lots of years of on 10 metres & a choice of vertical vs. horizontal antennas it funnily does seem to matter some on that band... I've never been quite able to explain it but it
has made the difference between a cw qso and no qso far too many times to be co-incidence in my book.

After your email I had a word with a physicist friend of mine who's also a RF expert - he is going to sort out the science for us and give a definitive answer ) He reckons however that the effect which randomises polarisation is decreasing noticeably by 30MHz. It has something to do with "plasma theory" he claims ) More to follow.

Best Regards
Cormac, EI4HQ
Manager, EI0TEN, Irelands 10 metre propagation beacon...

I have an end fed ZEPP that uses balanced "ladder line" from the antenna to the tuner in the shack. Insulators are is 2" wide made from cheap plastic 12" school rulers cut to the appropriate size (you get 12 per ruler if you halve it length ways and then cut both sections into six). The wires are 2mm multi-core, insulated which is the same as the antenna. It all works beautifully.
The only thing is the ladder line needs to be ridigly supported or the swr moves in sympathy with the line in the breeze if it lies anyway close (< 2') from earthed objects. Also keeping it straight is supposed to be important (however mine has several gradual bends on it...) but if you must bend it do so gradually and don't have any sharp changes of direction i.e corners.
Making ladder line is very theraputic/soporific I found )
73
Cormac EI4HQ